1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an improved feeding device of a packaging machine and to an improved method for feeding bulk products into a packaging station of a packaging machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Feeding devices of the type with which this invention are concerned are known for instance from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,417,544, 6,122,898, and 5,689,942. These publications disclose horizontal bag-making machines in which bulk products are individually delivered to a folding station, where they are encased with packaging film and the film is shaped into individual tubular bags; they are supplied with sealing seams, and the individual bags are cut apart from one another. So that the individual bulk products will arrive in a predefined spacing in the folding station, they are engaged beforehand by a revolving driver element chain, and each bulk product is transported by its own driver element and transferred to the folding station. Typically, a leading span is located upstream, in the conveying direction, of this driver span, and in the leading span the products are given a predetermined spacing and are thus transferred incrementally to the feeding conveyor.
These feeding devices have indeed proven themselves in practice. However, it is disadvantageous that the delivery span, that is, the leading span and the length of the feeding device, requires a relatively large amount of space.